(Bloomberg) -- The University of Southern California, the school at the center of a federal bribery case focusing on college admissions, named Carol Folt on Wednesday as its new president.
Folt, 67, who begins July 1, is the former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was previously a professor of biological sciences and eventually provost of Dartmouth College.
The new president will be taking over as USC grapples with the largest U.S. investigation of admissions fraud ever, one involving dozens of students and millions of dollars in bribes. Of the 33 parents named in last week's federal indictment as having weaseled their kids into highly selective colleges, more than half were applying to USC. Four of the school's current or former athletic department officials were charged in the case, more than any of the other
universities, which included Yale and Georgetown.
USC said this week it is reviewing the status of students who may be connected to the admissions scheme and may revoke their admission or expel them.
The private school had been mired in several controversies in recent years even before the entrance scandal broke. Former president Max Nikias resigned last year after a campus gynecologist was accused of molesting hundreds of students over decades and its medical school dean was reported to be a drug user. Wanda Austin has served in the interim.
UNC, during Folt's tenure, dealt with a scandal of its own involving athletics and academics.
Read more: ‘University of Scandal' -- Admission Scam Is Latest to Tar Hot USC
To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Lorin in New York at jlorin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Alan Mirabella
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